Sin City - Frank Miller

Just found a bunch of Sin City comics. To the noobs out there, Sin City is a comic series by Frank Miller. It was recently turned into a movie. The movie has mainly 'The hard goodbye' and 'That yellow bastard' from the series adapted into a visually stunning piece of work. The entire movie is mostly in Black n White - mainly to preserve the comic roots.
I am halfway thru 'A hard Goodbye'. Although Mickey Rourke as 'Marv' is unforgettably/undeniably brilliant once you have watched the movie, the real Marv doesn't look that good but he just oozes attitude out from the pages and his humour is wicked. Marv is like 'a meaner/darker' Duke Nukem in the flesh - enjoys 'going to work on someone' more than anything.
The artwork is astounding - 2 shades just seem to be more than enough for Frank to virtually explode out from the pages. The characters are all dark with varying shades of black. Everyone has their own skeletons!
All in all, a must read for comic book aficionados like 'Me'.

Spoiler Warning: If you plan to read or watch Sin City. Do not click this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_City

The week that was.... naaah C 64 yippee

(As a random experiment, I'm going to total my expenditure on a weekend)
I get up early nowadays so that I can switch off my broadband - happy hours end at 8 in the morning. Mornings are very sneaky they just zip past me..
Picked up my nephew at 10. We had a plan to watch Hanuman - an animated movie at the R(idiculously expensive) Adlabs, Mulund. I had exactly enough money for the tickets and travel.. I was too lazy to get some money from my card. (RunningTotal=225) During the interval some bozo right next to us, got a handful of popkorn and started munching. That's all my nephew needed to start hollering for popkorn n ice-cream n...I got up to get popkorn and turns out it's 40 bucks!!! I try a soft drink and that too is 40.. 4-5 times the street price. So I cajole my nephew into waiting. The movie was quite okay but could have been better.. they had a very good story-base to work on. So after the movie, We withdraw money and I get him some ice-cream n stuff. (RT-309). Hop onto a double-decker bus and train back home (my nephew is ecstatic.. hmm kids) . Somehow both of us just dropped deep into slumber and woke up only at 7. Watched ManUtd fail to score all 3 points AGAIN against Spurs.. they don't seem to have that magic after Beckham left for Spain. Keano is out, Giggs is injured, Scholes looks off.. Started watching 'Snatch' - was very sleepy so turned it off halfway, need to watch it again.
Sunday - Got up and spent some time watching wrestling. Then got a message asking me to pick up the commodore 64. I've been at the right place at the right time to get a C64 with some goodies FREE! Yes there is still some hope for this world. Trevor from the LUG made a post that I jumped at. Soon I was on my way to Bandra to pick it from his fiancee's place. Got some chocs for her and bought a stupid mag. It was a bloody huge bag and I lugged it all the way home in 4 hours flat. (RT-491). It's a mini-museum of ancient stuff, manuals,tapes - the kind that I like. I haven't plugged it in but it looks in prime condition - will need to bookmark a couple of days for this. Yeah right, I think I got days bookmarked right into next year.
It's bloody pathetic that I'm spending so much time doing things I don't give a shit about that I don't have time to do the things that I want to do. That's my long sermon for the day! I'll leave you with some pics of the c64...ciao

Personal Light Sabres anyone ?

I just found that someone is selling authentic light sabres in multiple colors, you know the cool ones from Star Wars. I dunno how much it costs to become a Jedi though :)http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/toys/69de/

Calvin and Hobbes

I don't know how I have missed talking about these 2 guys for such a long period. ( I mean it's been months since I started this blog.)
I just managed to get my hands on 'Weirdos from Another Planet - a Calvin and Hobbes collection by Bill Watterson' (One guy whose mind I'd like to take a tour of). Now here's an example of superfluous talk - "IT ROCKS !!!"
CnH strips are like ... like.. like something (Hidden strip joke) One minute you're laughing out of your socks- the next moment it's like Bill's last panel steam rolls you into unquestioning acceptance. e.g. Calvin - 'I'd hate to have a kid like me.' or 'What's wrong with this world. You get only five years to be a kid...'
If you are one of the bipeds who haven't spent ages in the magical world of CnH here's your chance.
http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/2990/weird.htm

[Update]
The wikipedia treasure trove
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes
Here's the list of all published books... dandy reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Calvin_and_Hobbes_books

Freak Accident ?

Sometimes coincidence seems too improbable to believe.
The stretch of the old Bombay Poona road at Kalwa has been in a very bad state for some months now. Even then it is a primary route to a large amount of truck traffic. What I state below is what I have heard from some people..
Last friday, two brothers (the younger was on the back seat with his arms around his brother's waist) were cycling to/from school. Some people were filling up potholes with stones and other patchwork attempts (this is a routine now). Anyway the rider somehow lost his balance- he tried to place his foot on the median/divider. (I have been on this divider before and it is too stupid for words. It seems like a miniature rock formation and vehicles have been known to get stuck there as the tyres easily go over it.) He misjudged it and both of them fell into the opposite lane between the front and rear tyres of a truck going the other way.
The trucker was "apprehended" later.I was there yesterday and there seems to be no evidence like anything like this happened. They have been reduced to just another stat.
It set off several questions in my mind..

• Whose fault is it?

1. The children ? - anyone could have slipped there with the roads in that state. They must have been cycling to/from school everyday.
2. The trucker - He couldn't have seen the children fall or had the time to do anything.
3. The people responsible for the roads - I don't know who these guys are. But to me it seems like they are the people who should take the rap for this. That road is an absolute nightmare even for pedestrians crossing it and no one gives a shit for public safety. What are these people spending my tax money on ? The Thane toll revenue on the eastern express highway seems to be supporting some hidden country.
4. A cruel twist of fate ?

Now someone has had the bright area of barricading the area against heavy vehicles and a part of the road looks repaired. But at what cost - the sacrifice of two innocent lives? I have no idea how their parents will cope with this and how the people whose apathy led to this, will sleep anymore (Am I one of them?).

• Are we really safe ? What can I do ? I cannot be with my dear ones 24X7 looking out for some stupid maniac on a bike or a car. I clutch even tighter to my nephew's hand now when we are walking in the open.
  

It is said that the younger one still had his arms around his brother's waist, when someone stepped in to take their bodies off the road.

What am I reading now ?

You can find this out at http://bookshelved.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?GishuPillai

This is a pretty nice effort where you can keep an eye on what someone else is reading currently and is also a great way of finding cool TO-Reads ! A thumbs up of whoever came up with this idea.

Thanks Owen Rogers <http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/exortech/> for showing this to me via your blog.

I DO IT is a just a letter away from IDIOT

I kill myself ... most of the time. This is a sure-fire poster line or a t-shirt.

If I had a 10 Rupee note for all the times that I got myself into a 'HowthehelldidIgetmyselfintothis' situation. The answer usually is a reluctant 'I'll do it' in the past. An thoughtless/indifferent Ok comes a close number 2.
Moral of the story: Avoid committment unless absolutely necessary.

Book Review: IACOCCA ***1/2

To the uninitiated, Lee Iacocca, the son of an Italian immigrant, worked for Ford for thirty years, rose from the ranks to get the Presidency and then was unfairly fired by Henry Ford II in the mid 1970s. He and his team were responsible for Ford's Mustang and Mark III, which helped Ford keep within distance of General Motors the giant in the field. But then the eccentric Henry Ford (who's literally runs the company to his whims) fires him and tries to humiliate him publicly as he gets too close to the 'crown'. Lee has the option to take this lying down but he chooses to get even. He joins Chrysler the third and last player in the auto game, which is on the brink of being declared bankrupt. He assembles his dream team from his colleagues at Ford (some of which he had to fire himself as per Henry's orders). He then does a 'Rocky Balboa' to bring Chrysler back from the dead with the K-Car. The most memorable newspaper cartoon (some clippings are included in the book) is a Chrysler car coming out with all cylinders firing from a grave.The book touches on many things like the recoil on his personal life, the rise of mediocrity, the discriminatory policies, the smart Japanese turning US into a colony of sorts, bureaucratic bullshit, turning into a public figure with his innovative commercials, and more. You see some mind boggling figures in this book being moved about like change. e.g. one of his lines "$1 million is like small change in the auto-business."

In short, a real life grim fairy tale. I enjoyed reading Iacocca's autobiography.

I found Iacocca to be a very practical guy, working with figures and doing what needed to be done without regret. Move fast and decisively and as he says there are no free lunches.

Here are some quotes from the man himself. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/lee_iacocca.html

Stumped!

Note: To make this somewhat funny, you need to know your Hindu epics - Ramayana.
This sunday, Me and my nephew (seen in the pic beside) caught up on our time-killing manifesto. So we wandered around looking at things. My nephew was up for it since he wanted to see all the Ganapati idols. So we reached a elaborate setup where they had this big Ganapati idol surrounded by moving robot-like other gods. On the left was a flying Hanuman, a mountain raised in one hand and the other hand waving his mace. So I asked my nephew, why has Hanuman lifted the mountain ? I was expecting a straight "I don't know" in all honesty. But pat came the reply "Because he wanted to wave his stick under it like this" and he proceeded to mimic Hanuman's waving of the mace.Now come I didn't think of that..

Clocks

I just hit upon one of my inane NON-timesavers. While coming to work today, I decided to ruminate/meditate/what-have-you on the reason why I'm always late for work... Apart from the top 3 reasons
1. I LOVE MY SLEEP TIME
2. I restain myself from beating up someone.
3. I restrain myself from just ending it all.

However these cannot be improved upon. So while taking my daily rickshaw (it's a no suspension motorized souped-up tricycle driven by local motorheads who are paid (by us) to scare the beejeezus out of us and loosen all body joints .) I hit upon one of the possible reasons.
To put some context into this, a one-way journey has 4 segments.
Seg 1. Rick Ride from House to Rail Station
Seg 2. Train To Point A.
Seg 3. Rick Ride from Point A to office.
Seg 4. I obviously don't know to count

I have 5 clocks all of which show different times.
Clock 1. This is the home wall clock. This appears to be in sync with the TV programmes half hour blocks and Dad won't let me change it (BBC time compliant!)
Clock 2. This is my emergency alarm clock that is burdened with the fruitless job of waking me up. This is 15 mins ahead of clock one to compensate for Snooze delay.
Clock 3. This is time set on my cell-phone. This is 5 mins behind Clock2. This is the one I refer when I'm on the move.
Clock4. This is the clock hanging at the rail station. I heavily suspect some morbid creature toying with it because every morning my train leaves me stranded after a 0-60 frenzy dash. I then make a note of the difference to my phone-time. Only to be screwed royally again the next day. Touche!
Clock5. is the office clock, which is always 2 mins behind and announces my late in-times. I stand by it panting and wheezing !

Even with 5 clocks if I can't be on time, why the hell bother !! I'm gonna sleep extra tomorrow to appease my hurt punctuality.

Story of the boy, who thought he'll reach home today!

This is the heart-wrenching hair-dripping and bone-soaking account of the day, God's giant plumbing network sprung a leak. It rained cats n dogs and a few stray cows. Mumbai became the pilot for the human teleporting programme, where people were instantly transported from point to another - the teleporting stations were marked with what look like manhole covers according to bystanders. The programme had a minor setback in that people were not transported to places where they wanted to go.. But all's swell that ends like hell.
It was a pleasant morning that day.. didn't see this coming. My Spider sense was in Silent mode.. dammit!. The morning began with a HR Session, which was hilarious in the short-term and ironically tragic too.
Anyways it started raining real hard sometime around noon or that's when I noticed it. People started leaving. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to wait till it clears up and then leave. Soon after the lights go out.. the power companies do not want to risk it as their transformers are already submerged. 5pm, out of the blue, I get a free ride home invite from Mr. P (names withheld for no reason whatsoever). Me and three others jump at this (This was Mr.P's play of the day.)
Cut to.. it's 6 pm we are at the gates of the office complex, the roads are jammed. I'm thinking are these walls to keep out intruders or to prevent the inmates from escaping. At 7 we are making snail-like progress on the JVLR or whatever remained of the JVLR at that time. Now we are driving in the dark with hordes of people walking it out and they are moving faster than us. As we go forward, water level rises. My feet are cool... that's because now we have water seeping into the car. Praying the car will see us home, Mr. P fights it out against the lashing rain and 1mm visibility.
Now we are in the drop zone (kanjurmarg - a place that can put Atlantis to shame for the speed at which it submerges each time someone leaves a tap running.). So we had people telling us to get into the wrong lane coz the other lane was right under deep water. Right at that divine alignment, the car fumes and gives up. Tired of abuse I guess.. So we have a stalled car in the wrong lane, no visibility, deadlocked vehicles and people walking past us. There won't be a better time to get out of the car. Then it was a blur, we were running around in the rain, instructing other people to move their vehicles, pushing our car a few cms at a time, diffused the traffic, too many things. I (with some assistance) moved a BEST bus that day how many of us can claim to have done that. People were helping each other to fight the downpour and move ahead. (Never say die.. Mumbai) When we reached the first break in the median, we pushed our car to the side and then we trooped a one or 2 kms in the dark to Mr.P's house in Bhandup.
Most of us accept Mr.P's invite to a free night's stay at his place. I once again feel like I'll reach home (if I've come this far .. syndrome). So me and another friend who stays nearby hit the road again.
I am trying to catch a bus (I saw a few going down that road) to reach Point X from where I again catch a ride home. It seemed like an hour before a bus arrived. It had just enough space for me (in Mumbai terms it means - enough to stick my right foot in). So the bus went wading thru the water. (Incidentally the guy whose house was nearby happened to spend the night on the road coz he couldn't get into his building but that another story...). So I'm hanging like a rag-doll out of the bus, the rain on my brow, the water is knee-high, floating vehicles, etc.etc... It's nearly mid-night. This bus won't take me all the way home and the chances of getting another ride are low.

The bus stops somewhere in between. Two guys try to get in and in their tussle, the strap of my bag broke and it goes underwater. My bag is nowhere to be seen, I jump out. Fortunately there are some people standing and the bag gets caught up in their legs. Those guys (thanks buddies!) hand over my bag back smiling. I grab it and jump back to claim my place.

The bus trudges on.. water level is rising.. I see ground floors of buildings almost underwater..
I think to myself.. God seems to be giving me a *subtle* hint here. He poured enough water to make Mumbai submerge ( later newspapers claimed it was a record - most rainfall in a hundred years) He created enough traffic to make us go back into our offices. We didn't listen. He turned off the power to make it pitch dark. He then blew up Mr.P's car. He shut down transport so we had to walk. He made sure that no buses could run with Mumbai's clogged drainage system (he has got some connections in the BMC). Cell phone networks are non-operational. I am soaked to the bone and been on my way home for the past 6 hours.. What did it all add up to ?
God doesn't want me to go home today!
So finally I become one with the Force and step off the bus. I make my way to my friends Nitin's place. The water current almost sweeps me off my feet a couple of times. I brave my way upstream and finally at some time around midnight, I am outside Nitin's doorstep and ring the doorbell. I can only imagine what a sight I must have been for his Mom. It turned out my friend himself was stuck at HIS friend's place.. talk about God's far out design patterns (:P)! Anyways she played good samaritan to the T. I got dry clothes, best food I've eaten in a while (she cooked it up in a flash!). I had water, food, books and TV (my 4 essentials). I slept comfortably. Before I forget, I SOLEMNLY THANK NITIN's MOM for EVERYTHING !!! The next day I waited for some news on the telly stating that transport had begun. Air traffic was closed and people were stuck on rail stations for nearly half a day. The rains hadn't let up. The govt complained once again that it was a freak case.. In India, something has to happen before the infra for dealing with that is setup (remember the Tsunami??) Pathetic !!! So then I switched on my friend's comp and read an Asterix. Infinitely more fun.
Finally at some time near noon, I decide that it is time for me to begin the second leg of Tour'de'Kalwa.
So I change back into gear. Pick up my stuff. I get a rick to Mulund check naka 10 bucks! I was pleasantly surprised that Mumbaikars were actually helping each other in times of calamity. I now have high hopes of actually making it home without shelling out a fortune. To put fwd a frame of reference, from this point a ride to my home cost 25 units. I now found that the snivelling, gross gremlins driving ricks here were now charging 40 a seat (they will stuff atleast 4 in a rick meant for 3) coming to 120-160. I then proceeded to rename them with more colorful names that I could think of in my mind. I saw people being stuffed like sardines into tempos (200 bucks a person for a trip to Kalyan). This snapped me out of my Mumbaikar (but then there are more immigrants now than ever) reverie. As soon as Nature took her foot off their scrawny throats, these people get up and kick other people in the teeth, who haven't still managed to get to their feet. Bloody third cousins of the maggots at Kanjur rickshaw stand!! I resolved to not give a single dime to these leeches. I WALKED home, yes I did. I saw on the way home that Thane did not seem to be that hit by last night's mayhem except that everything was wet n squishy. I helped a couple of rickies push their dead tin tricycles thry knee deep water. You know when a stranger smiles at you, for helping him when there is nothing in the world that you are getting in return.. and it kinda lingers in your memory for a while. I got one of 'em. Ok too much mush.. I walked n walked... fast fwd. Now I'm in Kalwa, home stretch. I go down my most trodden way only to see a huge lake of water... backtrack take another route in. This one is significantly less. I wade thru knee deep water to my building.. I see lots of people just splashing around.. making the most of what God has hosed them with I guess. I am upto my ass in mucky brown water and my brain went 'Yes I see it... This is Shanghai just waiting to happen!'
I was glad that the entire ordeal ended (I am sure that you are also in a similar state now thanks to my painfully meticulate depiction.. the power of writing)
I then proceed to getting all washed up and made the mistake of heaving a huge sigh of relief! Some how after the rains eased up, the water level kept on rising (there were some unconfirmed rumors of a nearby Dam being opened ) .
Time for some snappy art-work (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123012951&code=17908966&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-Album Invite)
The morning saw people indulging in impromptu tourism.
To bring you closer to the end of this tirade, there was no electricity for the next 3 days, consequently no water for the next 4 days. Food supplies dimished. Piles of garbage materialized along roadside as a bizarre memorial to the deluge. The public transport system disappeared in one blur of miscommunication, misadministration, finger-pointing and lack of accountability. Representatives of the people turned into apparitions.. never seen in the daylight. People turned to the streets, some died in stampedes and other waiting for medication.Things crawled back to normal.
I was wondering I pay a lot of money as tax to the government. It's been 50 yrs+ since independence. My housestill suffers from power cuts and water cuts. I still get ripped off everyday coming to office (courtesy of the Kanjumarg looters! You wanna be a crorepati don't waste time trying to get in KBC. Buy a Rick and get in line here.) Mars has fewer craters compared to the old Bombay Poona road, which runs near my house. Getting home in a local train beats even the scariest ride in Essel World hand down. I do not trust anyone who is trying to sell me something (ok that may be my issue). I can't even get a decent broadband connection without falling into the cablewallah nexus. I got a cell from MTNL the country's major telecom corp and they too are busy sticking me with bills for no-service for having the urge to try one of their services. (Now I just bite my lip till the urge passes.). There is this overpowering stench of public apathy in the air. Anything goes here and will go again as long you know someone with clout. Nice guys don't finish last they are squished! Mera bharat Mahan ? yeah right !! Oh god, I've started whining again... got to make better use of my time! I'll read some MSDN to get into a stoned state.

MTNL GPRS Sucks

By the way GPRS stands for Globally Pathetic Repulsive Service from MTNL
I am in the midst of a huge Tiff with these idiots.
Will post the story later.
For now just remember MTNL stays at Mera Telephone Nahi Lagta
and don't ask for GPRS from these @%^&^%@$!@*&*@*&**& !!!

Banish all the Techie posts !

Yes it's true. All the techie posts are now kicked out to
www.madcoderspeak.blogspot.com

What's with the title of the blog ?

With all due apologies to the "Scott Adams", the creator of Dilbert n Gang. Here's a botched attempt at reproducing one of his old strips (If you have trouble reading the strip, it's time you see your local Eye doctor.. naah just save the Pic locally and open it one of your image-editors) . I repeat this is not drawn by Mr. Adams, as you can probably see for yourself.
This blog is proof of that concept. It is being written by a single ape as of now, the other two are on Vacation. That is the story behind the title.

Dilbert is amazingly difficult to draw, considering that is nothing more than lines and circles.. AND you need a very steady hand (one mistake any Dilbert or any one of the other characters won't look as they are supposed to) . Also expressions on Dilbert are very difficult, coz there is very little that you can tweak.. e.g. When Dilbert is stunned/surprised, you see his eyebrows or hair standing on end.
A salute once again to Scott Adams... hope he continues taking the veil off office hocus-pocus in the years to come !!

[AudioManiaX] - ColdPlay

Just bought the new ColdPlay album X&Y. This is the first time I listened to these guys and know what, they are different and more importantly in a "good" way. 'Speed of Sound' n 'What If' are brilliant IMHO. I haven't listened to the entire album yet.. but I'm glad I spent the money this way !


What if there was no line?
Nothing wrong, nothing right.
What if there was no time?
And no reason or rhyme.
What if you should decide, that you don't want me there by your side.
That you don't want me there in your life.
What if I got it wrong,
and no poem or song
Could put right what I got wrong
Or make you feel I belong
What if you should decide that you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in your life.

Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
How can you know it if you don't even try
Oooh, that's right

Every step that you take
could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that's the risk that you take
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there in your life
That you don't want me there by your side.

Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
How can you know it when you don't even try
Oooh, that's right

Ohhhhh
Oooh, that's right
Let's take a breath jump over the side
Oooh, that's right
You know that darkness always turns into light
Oooh, that's right


The CD is copy-controlled which I think rocks for bands like these, who make 'Music'. Only jack-a***** would defile such work by ripping 'em off. But in this case, they can't :)
Also got a neat page with all the lyrics - You can't even begin to appreciate these guys if you don't get the lyrics - http://www.alwaysontherun.net/coldplay.htm

I also got 'Edward the Great' - can't help listening to Iron Maiden all the time I'm not listening to Simon n Garfunkel.

Start something new

That's the thing here .. but the trouble is that I then leave it for someone else to continue the good work.
Hopefully this isn't one of those things (evil snicker)

btw .. I may be the zillionth person to say this
Firefox kicks ass !!

word for the day
suffer-chand :
--- someone who really travels a lot
---- alternate --- someone who unwittingly makes other ppl suffer
--- real -- an apple in Hindi